


All on the Line [Austin]

by bobasheebaby



Category: LoveLink (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, I hope, I will cry if this happens in the game, M/M, Prison Escape, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:55:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26909251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bobasheebaby/pseuds/bobasheebaby
Summary: Days without contact you decide to track down which prison Austin was transferred to. During your visit you learn just how far you will go for love.
Relationships: Austin Russo/Female Reader, Austin Russo/Male Reader, Austin Russo/You
Comments: 5
Kudos: 37





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my girl this will be a crazy ride series. It will eventually have smut so please be over 18 if you read this.

When I first swiped right on Austin’s profile I never expected to end up where I am now. I thought, ‘what’s the harm in chatting with a guy behind bars, at least he can’t stand me up’. If only I had realized then how deep I would fall for him. It surprised me how quickly I became attached to him in a way I hadn’t with any of my exes. 

At first it was little things like my heart racing when I got an alert from Lovelink that Austin replied. Next I was ignoring all alerts from the dating app that weren’t Austin, before long I had unmatched from everyone, leaving only his name. 

Maybe I should have been worried about how fast I was falling for him when I didn’t know much about him or why he was behind bars, maybe I should have been afraid and run for the hills when he finally confided that he was locked up for murder. Except there was a small voice telling me there was absolutely no way the man I’d been talking to for weeks could have possibly killed anyone, let alone his father. 

Almost every story he shared involved him and his pop, he may have been a criminal, but he was no murderer. 

It wasn’t until the truth of his sentence came out and I thought he was truly gone that I uncovered just how strong and real my feelings for him were. It was when tears streaked my cheeks as I read his final poem to me that I knew I’d found and lost love. 

Miraculously he’d been spared and we made it past one of the darkest days in my life. We made it through and I was sure nothing else would get in our way again, I should have expected life to prove me wrong. Of course Bennie would be arrested before Austin was exonerated, why would I expect anything else?

Five days had passed since he was transferred and I was slowly spinning out. I had known there was a strong possibility that he’d lose his only link to the outside world. Going from speaking to him everyday to total radio silence was harder than I’d ever imagined. It wasn’t until I was constantly met with the grayed out circle staring up at me that reality settled in; anything could have happened to him and I would never know. I suddenly realized how stupid we’d both been, he had one way to contact me and I knew next to nothing about him.  _ I should have at least asked for his lawyer's number, then I’d know he was safe.  _

I let out a sigh as I exited out of the Lovelink app once more. I needed to pull myself together, get out of my head, I was better than this. I couldn’t sit at home constantly fearing the worst, I needed to try something, anything, to assuage my fears. 

What I needed was to be able to find him. Just know he was somewhere out of harm's way. My stomach twisted in knots, I knew that wouldn’t be enough, I needed to see for myself that he was alive and well.  _ One step at a time, first I need to locate him.  _

\--

Calling the jaw dropping number of prisons in my state had been easy compared to waiting in line. I nervously chewed my lower lip as my heart pounded in my chest. The drive hadn’t done anything to help calm my nerves, if anything it only made things a hundred times worse. All the ways that my heart could be crushed had raced through my mind as I drove. 

I swallowed as I stepped forward and gave the less than impressed officer my name and the inmate I wanted to see. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here, and honestly so did I. 

This wasn’t the butterflies in my stomach meeting I had dreamed of over the course of our chats. In every scenario Austin had been a free man, no rules, just me and him. As much as I needed to see for myself that he was unharmed this wasn’t what I had in mind. 

This was going to be pure hell, seeing him and not being able to touch him was going to break me, but this was my only option, there was no way of knowing when Austin would be released and I would surely go crazy if I waited until then. 

It felt as though hours had passed and I still hadn’t been asked for my ID. _Oh god, he doesn’t want to see me._ It was my worst fear come true. _God what if he was just using me to gain his freedom …_

I felt like a damn fool as I waited for the guard to say anything. I wasted my time. I was stupid and foolish to have gone through the lengths I had to locate him and make sure I memorized the prison’s visitor protocol inside and out. 

I jumped as the guard cleared his throat.  _ Shit what did he say? _

“ID,” he said with a cutting edge to his voice, “and sign in.”

I let out a breath of relief as I passed him my license. _Way to jump to conclusions Y/N._ I chastised myself as I impatiently waited for the guard to return my ID. 

I felt more than a bit silly as I quickly stuffed the card into the front pocket of my jeans. Of course I’d be on his list, he’d mention wanting me to come visit him more than once. This wasn’t me, this was simply the unavoidable nerves. 

\--

My fingers drummed against the tabletop as my eyes scanned over the other visitors filling the room. Parents, significant others, even children, the expressions on their faces told me they were all old pros, hopefully Austin and I wouldn’t have to meet too many times under these conditions; he was innocent, surely the judge could see that after receiving Bennie’s DNA. No, we certainly would be free to meet without time limits soon enough, they couldn’t keep him here forever since we cleared his name.

My heart pounded against my rib cage as I watched the first prisoner file in. Mere minutes from now I would be sitting across from Austin, he would no longer simply be a picture, a series of texts, and a voice my mind created. 

I sat up straighter, forcing a smile upon my lips as he came into view. I stifled a laugh as I watched his eyes go wide, clearly I wasn’t who he was expecting.  _ Hopefully it’s a pleasant surprise.  _

With every step that he grew closer the urge to jump up and wrap my arms around him grew stronger. I gripped the edge of the table as I willed myself to remain seated. Every fiber of my being wanted to throw my arms around him and hold him close, but I knew I couldn’t, that would only serve to cut our thirty minutes short. 

_ Thirty minutes _ . That was all we would be granted, the time that it took to watch a sitcom without skipping commercials. It wouldn’t be enough, I was just thankful that we wouldn’t be stuck to limited interactions for much longer. 

“You were not who I was expecting when they told me I had a visitor.” He shook his head as he sat down, his voice was deeper than I’d concocted in my mind and sent an involuntary shiver down my spine. “You look even hotter in person.” His signature cocky smirk on his lips and his eyes reflecting a mixture of awe, lust, no love and was that a hint of sadness I detected? I instantly realized I must be mistaken, he had no reason to be sad, soon enough he would be a free man. 

“Me? I’m not the one making orange look  _ good.” _

He laughed and I felt at ease as we quickly fell into our normal banter, this time face to face. 

As time wore on one thing burned in my gut, when would he be free to live the life he dreamed? 

“So, have you heard when you get to escape this place?” I finally gave voice to the only question on my mind and watched as the light in his blue eyes faded. I was almost thankful that I hadn’t asked it right away. 

“I should’ve known you would ask that.”

“What, Austin, what do you mean? Your name has been cleared.” I felt dizzy and couldn’t understand why Austin seemed to be content with leaving without telling me when I’d get to see him again. 

“I appreciate your help, but I don’t think I’m getting out.”

“Why? They have Bennie’s DNA …” nothing he was saying made any sense and it felt like all the air had been forced out of my lungs. 

“The sample you took went missing, they are rerunning both our DNA.”

“How does evidence just go missing?” My world was slowly falling apart and I was struggling to make sense of it all.

“Bennie, he paid someone off, probably had some dirty cop the entire time … I already know what’s going to happen at court in a few days.”

_ No no no.  _ This couldn’t be happening, this had to be some kind of mistake. “If they are running both samples they will see the truth right?” I was grasping at straws and I knew it. Deep down I understood why he felt he had zero chance of getting out of this alive but I refused to believe that I would find my other half only to have him ripped away from me like this.

“We have a few minutes left, can we just drop it? Talking about it won’t change nothin.” 

I watched as in an instant every wall I’d broken down over text went back up. He was giving up and I felt like I was hovering over an abyss. 

I looked up at the clock on the wall, we still had five minutes, I just hoped it would be enough for me to figure a way out of this mess. I wouldn’t let him go without a fight, I’d saved his life once before, I could do it again I just needed to figure out how. 

The realization that we wouldn’t be able to free him legally hung over my head, how the hell was I going to get him out so I could clear his name once and for all? My eyes landed on his orange jumpsuit and I quickly cobbled together _part_ of a plan, I could figure the rest out later, I had _minutes_ to get him on board and my time was quickly running out. 

My eyes darted to the officers hanging around the perimeter and I lowered my voice leaning forward slightly in my seat. “I’m not giving up. Give me your lawyers information and let them know I’m calling. I’m meeting you in court, I just need you to please figure out how to get on the laundry detail.”

He looked at me like I was crazy, surely I was, I was thinking about breaking a prisoner out of jail but I couldn’t let him die. “No, you’ve done enough, if Bennie sees you —”

“If Bennie sees me it won’t change anything. If he admitted to knowing me his little secret regarding the missing DNA could come out.” I instinctively reached towards his hand, freezing when our fingers were a hair's breadth apart. “You know he wouldn’t jeopardize his own freedom, just please, I know it’s all a long shot and I have to figure a lot of shit out, but _please_ just listen to me.” 

“You’re as much trouble as I am, aren’t you?”

“I am, for you.” I implored him with my eyes, “promise me you’ll get the job?”

“Whatever you’re thinking isn’t gonna work, but fine.”

I realized then he’d given up all hope, he was only going along with it because of me. 

“I promise it will work.” I barely believed the words myself but I needed to make him believe I did. “I’ll figure it all out and let you know the plan at court, all I need is your lawyer's name.”

He quickly rattled off the information and I made a mental note. I’d put them in my phone as soon as I got back into my car and call them when I got home, hopefully he’d already have talked to them.

As he stood to return to his cell I tried to remind myself that this wasn’t the end, no matter what I would save his life. 

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You get some help from an old match and good friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thank you to my friends who helped get me out of my head (you know who you are!)

If I had thought that planning a prison escape in a matter of days would be easy I was proven wrong within hours. I wouldn’t allow the complexity of the job to stop me, I made a promise and I meant to keep it. It quickly occurred to me that it would take far more than just myself to pull this off. 

Even if Austin could secure the laundry job there was the issue of having an outside man driving the truck. Luckily enough I happened to know someone who had zero issues with the lack of legality in my planned job. 

I gulped as I pulled up Jaden’s name in my contacts, I knew he would be on board but he would certainly question how I managed to get myself involved in such a situation. After several failed dates, all ending with my near arrest it was clear all we could ever be was friends, now I was willingly putting my own freedom on the line to spring a guy from prison. 

I rolled my eyes, he was going to have a field day lording over my head how far the mighty have fallen. 

_He’s worth it, Austin is worth it._ I reminded myself as I listened to the line trill. 

I had too much to plan and figure out and only a few short days to sort it out, so I bypassed all usual decorum. As his smooth voice broke through the speaker I quickly returned his greeting before quickly explaining the situation. 

I had to bite back a groan as his laugh filtered through the speaker, I could almost hear the smug smirk I knew he was displaying.

“Wait a minute, let me see if I got this right … you gave me crap about stealing a car and breaking into the police commissioner’s house and yet you are planning to break an inmate, but not just  _ any _ inmate, an inmate _ on death row _ , out of jail.”

I huffed a breath, “are you going to help me or not?” I knew he wouldn’t make this easy but I didn’t have a second to waste. 

“I should make you beg.”

“Jaden ...” I was quickly losing my cool, a man’s life was on the line and Jaden was taking pure joy in the idea of making me sweat. 

“Fine, I’ll help ... if you admit you have a type.”

“And what’s my type?” Damn, he was such a cocky bastard. As much as I hated all the hoops he was making me jump through I could only wonder, what did he believe my type was? 

“Bad boys.”

I rolled my eyes with such force I was surprised they didn’t lodge themselves in the back of my head. “Fine, I have a thing for bad boys.” 

“Now was that so hard to admit?”

“Shut up.”

“Is it because of me you’re into bad boys though? Like after we didn’t work out you realized how much you loved the thrill, but it was too late to be with me?”

“Damn you’re cocky.”

“In all the right places. But tell me, what’s this convict got that I don’t?”

Was he seriously this sure of himself that he needed me to break down that we didn’t work simply because he had some less than legal activities? 

I strongly considered going with the easy answer and simply say ‘me’, but I knew Jaden well enough to know that wouldn’t fly. 

I paused as I tried to put my feelings for Austin into words, something I hadn’t even done with Austin aside from saying 'I love you’.

“I guess it’s the little things, he didn’t open up right away, but once he did … he has a soft side that most people don’t get to see. He loves poetry and is really good at writing it, he can also be majorly cheesy.” I smiled to myself. “But that’s all just with me, I get the idea that he really didn’t open up to many people, and as reluctant he was to let me in and see who he really is I’m glad he did. 

I know what I’m planning is crazy, but how am I supposed to just sit back and let him die?”

“You really care about him, don’t you?” 

“I love him Jaden.”

“Come by tomorrow and we’ll figure everything out.”

\--

As Austin was led into the courtroom my breath caught in my chest. When I’d visited him at the prison I had been too distracted by worry of his reaction to my presence to take in his appearance. 

The orange jumpsuit I’d become accustomed to seeing in his selfies was traded in for a white Oxford shirt. I greedily traced the lines of his torso with my eyes, the beautiful way the fabric stretched across the broadness of his chest had me biting the inside of my lip and cursing the fact that even now I would have to limit myself to simply speaking to him. 

I subtly shifted in my seat as he took his place behind the table feet from me. My eyes drifted to Jaden seated across the aisle and I gave him a barely perceptible nod of the head. 

My heart pounded in my chest as I watched Jaden stand from his seat. 

It felt like everything was moving in slow motion as he crossed into the front of the courtroom.

My gaze flicked towards the bailiff standing near the judge’s bench. His eyes were locked onto Jaden as the rule-bending bad boy pushed the gate of the bar open, exited the gallery, and sauntered right up to Austin’s lawyer.

I forced a small gasp from my throat, it was important that I acted just as surprised as everyone else in the room. 

My eyes were fixed to Jaden as he spoke words I couldn’t quite make out. The sight of his smirk and wink had me assuming he was being cocky and flirty as always. 

I only tore my eyes away from Jaden and Austin’s council when the bailiff approached. “Sir, you can’t be up here.” 

Jaden’s grin only grew wider as he shot a wink aimed at both myself and the lawyer as he casually slung his arm around the bailiff’s shoulders. “Just one second my man.” 

The gasp that slipped past my lips was pure and genuine. I was tempted to turn away, but like a train wreck I couldn’t tear my eyes away. 

The bailiff slipped Jaden’s arm off, his eyes dark with contained fury. “Sir, I must insist that you return to your seat.”

“I’m just trying to have a conversation.”

His response was so flippant I might have laughed in any other situation. 

“Either you return to your seat or I’m going to have to escort you from the courtroom.”

Jaden squared his shoulders in a silent challenge, I fought the urge to bury my face in my hands.  _ This was such a bad idea.  _

Everything after Jaden’s silent refusal happened in a blur. One second he was standing in quiet defiance and the next he was being forcefully removed from the courtroom with Austin’s lawyer following closely behind. Within seconds the room shifted from complete chaos to utter silence. 

I jumped up from my seat, rushing forward as the resounding thud of the courtroom doors closing marked that Austin and I were nearly alone, if only for a few minutes. It took all my self restraint to keep myself on my side of the wooden railing separating the courtroom. 

“What the hell was that?” Austin asked as his eyes landed on me. 

“I dunno. He told me he’d get us a few moments alone, I guess I should have known.” His proximity made it hard to breathe. He was the closest to me that he’d ever been, I longed to wrap him in my arms but knew if I did I’d never be able to let go. 

I shook the fog from my mind. There were a million things I wanted to tell him, but the knowledge that we had limited time kept me on task. “We don’t have much time,” my heart raced, I knew Jaden would keep them busy as long as he could but the truth was they could return at any moment. “Listen carefully.” I took a deep breath, steadying myself to get straight to the point.

“Did you get the job?” My heart froze in my chest, if he had failed then all the planning would have been for naught, I wouldn’t be able to free Austin and he’d die. 

“Hell yea I did.” He shot me a cocky little grin.

A smile spread on my face but it didn’t hide the surprise in my eyes. Seeing how he’d given up on saving himself I worried he wouldn’t even attempt to get the job. 

“Did you doubt I could?” He asked with a raise of a brow.

I fought an eye roll, _Jaden was right, I_ do _have a type; cocky bastards._ “Not that you _could_ do it, just that you _would_.”

“It wasn’t easy. Let’s just say I had to do some things.” He physically shuddered and I began to wonder how far he really went to get the job, “but I did it for you.”

“OMG. You didn’t have to …” 

“No. Nothing like that. This,” he gestured to himself with a waggle of his eyebrows, cocky was  _ definitely _ my type, “is only for you.”

“Thank god,” I barely concealed my sigh of relief. “What did you have to do?”

“Uhhh I had to give up my phone.” Surprise was surely written on my face, he chuckled, if I hadn’t been so confused I would have longed to hear it again. “Well the location, I snuck it in and hid it but then I couldn’t get back to it.” All tension left my body at his explanation. “I found this inmate, Damien. Kid is going through something similar. He traded jobs with me, for the phone. I hope that phone brings him someone like it did for me.” He smiled, a wide genuine smile and my heart skipped a beat, he meant  _ me _ _.  _

I never wanted to leave, I could have spent an eternity just rooted there speaking to him but time was running out. I quickly filled him in on the plan Jaden and I had figured out. As the last word left my mouth the door creaked open causing me to jump.

I took a deep breath as I quickly retook my seat, soon Austin’s fate would be known. 

\--

If time before the hearing moved at a glacial pace, it moved at the speed of lighting during it. What seemed like seconds after retaking my seat I was exiting the courtroom, Austin’s verdict weighing heavy on my heart. 

Bennie tricked them,  _ again _ . 

I gave Jaden a tense smile, Austin was once more set to die. The thought left me numb.  _ Snap out of it Y/N, he won’t die, the plan will work and then we can work to clear his name.  _

“You know you really owe me one Y/N.”

“Why? You didn’t get arrested. They just kicked you out of the courthouse.”

“Yeah, and your boyfriend’s lawyer gave me their business card with a wink.”

“Well with how often you like to bend the rules, it could be good to have a lawyer on your side.”

“Damn it. I hate it when you’re right.”

His words barely registered in my mind as one thought repeated in my mind, this was the easy part. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Austin makes his escape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is completely from Austin’s POV.

I had a suspicion about why Y/N wanted me to get a job in the laundry room. I didn’t know if it was the best idea, but Y/N was the first person I trusted in a long time.

The truth was I didn’t expect the plan to last very long. I figured that the past would just continue to repeat and Y/N would decide I wasn’t worth the trouble like everyone always had. 

I found myself stunned that they would actually continue to fight for me even when I’d practically given up on myself. After years of being stuck behind bars, I’d lost all sense of hope, somehow Y/N managed to bring me back to life. 

One thing I’ve always regretted was how much Y/N risked their own life to save mine. 

It didn’t make sense to me and probably never will how someone could care so deeply that they’d put their own freedom at risk for someone they’d never met. 

The blind trust in me was something I’d never experienced. I was used to people always seeing the worst in me. 

Y/N was the only person who ever saw every part of me and still stood by my side. It was that reason alone that I’d agreed to get the laundry job. 

In that moment it didn’t matter that I’d already given up hope of ever leaving prison because Y/N had more than enough hope for the both of us. 

The thing about planning an escape with someone on the outside is you have to leave your entire life in their hands. I never thought I’d ever trust someone so completely, but one look in Y/N’s Y/E/C eyes and I knew I’d be a fool to think they’d let me down. 

Relying on others was never something that came easy to me so it was living hell to wait as Y/N planned without me. All I could think was what if something went wrong and something happened to them, I’d never be able to live with myself. 

I still struggle to let go of the anger and resentment of my pop dying to save my life. I couldn’t handle knowing someone else gave up their life for me. 

I finally felt some relief when Y/N told me the plan. Between the intense attraction and the limited time frame what I was told was a fraction of what was going on.

It wasn’t until the day I was to escape that I realized that I knew what to do and when, but was completely blind to how my movements would be cloaked. 

My mind started to war with itself, falling back on the mistrust that always came so easily. Most of my life had been spent with people thinking the worst of me, so why give them the benefit of the doubt they never gave me? Y/N was the only person I had ever trusted fully in all my life, so it wasn’t a surprise when I started to wonder; what if trusting Y/N was a mistake? Could I really go forward without knowing all the facts? 

This was my one chance of gaining freedom, it was risky as hell to put all my trust in someone. Could I stay put and wonder as my final days approached? 

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Y/N’s worried face filled the dark void. Trusting them was a risk, but was it one I could afford not to take? 

I was stuck in a limbo. Between possible freedom and certain death, it was up to me to let go of my fears and deep dive into trusting another person with my whole heart. 

It felt harder than it should have. I’d been so used to only relying on myself it was nearly impossible for me to truly believe that Y/N would come through. 

It didn’t matter that I loved Y/N and they loved me. All I knew was mistrust and now I was even doubting myself. 

\--

My eyes flicked up towards the clock on the wall. I had managed to will myself to move forward with the plan, but even now standing in the middle of the laundry room I was once more having doubts. 

I was standing on the precipice of life or death and I was still unsure which direction to go. 

The pull to move forward and take the risk was as strong as the mistrust I’d felt my entire life. 

I felt rooted in place unable to move. I’ve always known what direction I was heading, for the first time in my life I was completely unsure. 

I wanted to live. But it wasn’t that easy, after Bennie’s dirty tricks I was once more labeled guilty, running was my only chance at prolonging my life, but would it be enough. 

Bennie was always one step ahead, what chance did Y/N and I stand of proving my innocence? Even if we managed the impossible would I just land myself back in a cell for escaping? 

I glanced back at the clock, I had precious minutes to decide. I could turn around and return to my cell like nothing happened or I could take a chance. 

I nearly gave in to the fear. The unknown momentarily more terrifying than knowing I only had days left to live. 

I wish I could say that Y/N is the reason I went ahead with the plan, and maybe subconsciously they were. Truthfully I pushed my doubts aside for the simple fact that if I returned to my cell Bennie would win. The thought of him walking free knowing he got away with murder was what kept me moving forward and climbing into the laundry cart. 

\--

I cautiously shifted my weight, changing my center of gravity as the cart lurched forward. I held my breath as I waited and prayed that my movement hadn’t caused the clothes concealing me to move unnaturally. 

“Let’s get this out of here shall we?”

If I hadn’t recognized the voice I would have wondered why he was speaking to an empty room. I quickly realized that I had heard that voice once before at the courtroom. 

His voice meant only one thing to me; Y/N came through. 

I could hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears as I inched ever closer to freedom. I was so close to actually tasting freedom it didn’t seem real. 

The sound of the squeaky front right wheel, mixed with the thudding of Jaden’s boots on the pavement and the pounding of my own heart in my ears only served to make me more anxious. 

As close as I felt to freedom I was still light years away. Even as I felt him load the cart into the back of the van I was on alert. 

I was still on prison ground and even when I was miles from the perimeter I wouldn’t be able to fully let my guard down. Even if I made it out today there were still multiple obstacles in the way of me being a truly free man. 

The van rocked with the slam of the door. My hunched position was beginning to make my fingers fall asleep but still I remained still. It wouldn’t be safe to exit the laundry cart until the prison was long behind us. 

My heart continued to pound in my chest as I tried to ignore the loss of feeling in my extremities. Instead I concentrated on the fact that soon I would see Y/N once more. 

It wasn’t the reunion either of us had been looking forward to. As more distance was put between myself and the prison I realized I’d be willing to run for the rest of my days as long as it meant I was still alive. 

Was it fair to expect the same from Y/N?

I would never be able to thank them for all they’d done to help me, but was it fair to ask for more?

They had freedom, a life, a future. Everything ahead of myself was completely uncertain. Who knew what a life with me would look like. Would I ever be able to settle down in one place without forever glancing over my shoulder?

_ I should thank them for everything and tell them I don’t expect them to go with me.  _

My stomach flipped unexpectedly at the thought of leaving Y/N behind. I’d never fallen so hard for someone the way I had with Y/N. 

Could I walk away knowing I may never see them again? Could I live with myself if I made them give up stability for me?

Shit. How the hell were things on the outside more complicated than the inside? 

“We’re nearly there,” Jaden’s voice jarred me from my thoughts, “you can stop hiding now, I’m sure you could use some fresher air.”

I chuckled as I pushed myself upright in the laundry cart. I’d been so lost in my thoughts that I hadn’t even noticed how horrible my hiding place had smelled.

I shook out my hands, willing the ‘pins and needles’ feeling to dissipate. As my eyes adjusted to the brightness inside the van I registered that Y/N wasn’t there. 

_ Good, I want them as far from this as possible.  _

The notion that Y/N might get locked up for breaking my sorry ass out of jail made my throat grow tight. I still couldn’t deny that in spite of dreading the thought of being the cause of them losing their freedom, how much disappointment I felt that they weren’t there. 

The van pulled up to a motel that had seen better days and Jaden turned in his seat handing me a white plastic keycard. “Thanks,” I said with a nod. 

“Room 114 …” I watched as his eyes flicked towards the motel, “don’t let anything happen to Y/N.” I swallowed and I knew he saw the way my Adam’s apple bobbed at the action. “It was hard enough to get them to wait here, no way in hell you can leave them behind.” 

He was right, Y/N was stubborn as hell, I learned that first hand when they scared me out of my mind going to the location I gave them before we could plan. It didn’t matter if I wanted them to stay behind so they wouldn’t end up in a cell, they wouldn’t take no for an answer. 

\--

I cautiously stepped into the room. The walk from the van to the motel room wasn’t long enough for me to contemplate what would greet me on the other side of the door but what I encountered surely wasn’t what I was expecting. 

The room was dark and still. Y/N had pulled the curtains shut blocking the sunlight from streaming in, as I looked down at my orange jumpsuit I was thankful for them thinking ahead. 

The room was dimly lit by a single lamp beside the bed. 

As I looked around the dingy room I noticed one thing that was missing: Y/N. 

I felt my heart race. Where were they? Jaden had been under the impression that they were here, there wasn’t any evidence of anyone being inside, only two duffles sat by the foot of the bed on the worn carpet. 

Finally my eyes fell on a piece of paper on the dresser across from the bed. I crossed the room in a few short strides. I lifted the paper up, my eyes quickly scanning the scrawled words. 

_ Austin, _

_ Ran out to get food. Be back shortly.  _

_ Y/N _

As I finished reading the note I heard the door click open. I turned, note slipping through my fingers and fluttering back to the dresser. 

“Austin,” Y/N gasped as our eyes met. Bags of food spilled from their hands and the door slammed shut behind them as they lurched forward. 

Before I could blink we were wrapped in a tight embrace. I buried my face in their neck as I felt overwhelming emotions bubble up. 

It didn’t feel real, for so long I’d been doubted. I’d been so close to losing my life, to be on the other side felt like an impossible dream. 

A tear slipped down my cheek as I held Y/N tightly. Without them I wouldn’t have this second chance, it didn’t matter what happened to me next, for now I was free. 


End file.
